The ITER EC H&CD upper launcher: Structural system

After approval of the preliminary design of the ITER EC H&CD Upper Launcher, ECHUL-CA, a consortium of several European research institutes, was founded to pool resources for approaching the final design. At the end of 2011 the consortium has signed a 2 years contract with F4E to go ahead with the work on the launcher. The contract deals with design work on both the port plug, forming the structural system, and the mm-wave-system, which injects the RF-power into the plasma. Within the period of this contract all components being part of the Tritium confinement, of which the closure plate, the support flange, the diamond windows and the waveguide feed-throughs are the most outstanding ones, will get the status of the final design. Important steps to be done for the structural system are the optimization of the mechanical behavior of the launcher, leading to minimum deflections of the port plug during plasma disruptions and optimum seismic resistance. To reduce the effect of halo currents it was decided to recess the first wall of 100 mm compared to the regular blanket tangent. This recess requires substantial changes of the cooling system and the thermo-hydraulic design of the launcher. Also the layout of the shielding arrangement and the integration of the mm-wave system need significant revision. Moreover manufacturing aspects and enhanced remote handling capability are taken into account. For the final design also quality aspects must be considered; thus the design is elaborated with respect to applicable codes and standards, material specifications, risk analyses and the RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) analysis to guarantee maximum performance of the device. This paper outlines the present status of the structural system of the EC H&CD upper launcher and represents the most recent steps towards its final design. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.